A Colorful Home Office in Progress

You’ve barely heard a peep from me about our home office in the last year and a half. So far, you’ve seen the Expedit – twice (after the Expedit hack, round two and when we made the plywood magazine files) – and the closet-turned-nook. But that’s all I’ve shown you – for good reason. The office was our dumping ground when we first moved in. When it was cold outside and we were working on the kitchen makeover, the office became tool storage (the garage seems so much farther away when it’s 35 below out). When the kitchen was done and order in the house was once again restored, the office took on a new role: acting as guestroom for a visiting friend. (I drove to my parents’ house with my truck and literally stole a bed from their guest bedroom). You might recall that last year I wanted to use the guesthouse for our Etsy shop, but it became too expensive to heat, so the guest bed was sheepishly returned and all of the Etsy merchandise moved into my office. Eventually I set up shelves in the basement, and now the Etsy goodies are organized and orderly, but before I could finally see our actual plans for the office come to fruition, it started housing the displaced dresser and chair from our bedroom.

We really have big plans for the space – I swear! It won’t remain a forgotten room forever. I’ll detail our plans, including the crazy thing we intend to do with the nook, soon (I want to get your feedback on some DIY desk designs too). Today, though, I wanted to capitalize on the cleanliness and give you a tour, so you can see the space. I recently dealt with the paperwork crowding my desk, washed the floors, and even hung the drapes from the bedroom – just until my Mom and I sew the new aqua tweed ones. One day this room will be more than simply where furniture and accessories come to languish. But today it’s clean, so take a peek!

This is one of my favorite paintings by Hubby’s Grandpa. Hubs had this already when we met – reason enough to marry the guy 😉

Even if they are temporary, I’m loving curtains in here. I’m embarrassed to tell you how long I’ve been staring at an empty curtain rod…

You have no idea how tempting it is to pack those dresser drawers full of stuff! The dresser is going back to my Mom’s, as soon as she makes room for it. After I stole it (having a truck makes me such a furniture thief), she rearranged all of her bedrooms and no longer has a spot for it. She’s getting the last laugh.

A softer pair of Bert’s paintings hang above the dresser, where they will stay when we build new desks. It’s hard to tell in photos, but there is a lot of soft aqua and pink layered in. The paintings are more colourful than they always look in photos.

The Expedit looks largely the same, except the top shelves are getting a bit crowded with framed prints I can’t seem to find a home for; I just stood them up behind my pottery to keep them safe. I stashed my sewing machine up there one day, also hoping to keep it safe, and there it has stayed.

The nook needs some work – melamine shelves are awfully weak. Sometimes in photos it looks like shelves are sagging because of lens distortion, but these shelves are actually sagging. We are actually thinking of using this space in an entirely different way…

There you have it, a look at the mysterious second bedroom! On the horizon: DIY desks, luxurious office chairs, a more practical nook, fabulous tweed curtains, a decluttered Expedit, plus clever ways to hide unsightly tech stuff (looking at you, hulking printer). For a little walk down memory lane, here’s what the room looked like when the former owners were using it as a bedroom, and then when it was empty:

Thanks! A lot of things will stay as-is, like the Expedit and the artwork. I like facing the window, too. So I'm inching toward a finished space but little tweaks will make it more functional, especially the addition of another desk.Truthfully, I took photos of all of the cubbies, but only this one turned out. The pottery bowl is by a Canadian artist, Shane Norrie, and the owl was made by a local pottery company, Strawberry Hill Pottery. They actually bought the house my great grandparents owned many moons ago, and that's where they produced the pottery, so the Strawberry Hill pottery is special to my family because we feel an odd connection. I'll have to do a post about it one day!

Thanks! I am a sucker for anything aqua and teal. You know, it's funny, when we bought this house we decided the impractical, 5 foot basement didn't bother us because we never used the perfectly functional basement in our last house. Now I realize how much we DID use that basement – it was the perfect dumping ground for things until I set aside some time to put them away. I'm fighting to keep the office from assuming that role. So far, still clean!

It's so funny when you think a room you've only seen in pictures is one way for a long time and then you look at some new pics and all the sudden realize you were way off. lol. I thought the door was on the left side of the wall it's on and when you walked in the room the closet was on your right in the corner facing the window and the bookshelf was on the right wall and the window being on the back wall, a bit to the left, opposite the door. Very strange……not the set up…..just the weirdo feeling of realization. lol. And I am very curious about this new use for the nook……maybe it will be turned back into a closet? Hmmm

I know the feeling – I'm often disoriented when bloggers post video tours and I realize I was all wrong about things. Haha, nope – not a closet! Actually, it's something so weird I'm nervous about sharing it on the blog. It will be fairly expensive so we need to save up for the execution. I'm SO excited, though.